**** Monica Rambeau (Agent of S.W.O.R.D.) ****

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Comments

  • Srheer0
    Srheer0 Posts: 510 Critical Contributor
    Art isn't easy. So I forgive D3 for art complaints. None of us know about what work goes into creating the visuals OR if they are even allowed to use official artwork for characters in the game.  

    As for her kit. I like it! She won't realistically be meta in 4star pvp events, but in shield Sim she can potentially make some really fun teams.  

    Pair her with Vulture for some battery shenanigans.  
    Pair her with Peggy and BWIW. Or Pr5fX. Both peggy and Profx increase enemy AP costs. And turning something spamable like BRBs blue (6) and making it cost 9 or 10 to fire can make a huge difference. BWIW can also stun things, and further reduce her allies power costs. Making both of Monica's powers decreasing from 6 down to the minimum of 3ap to fire.

    She could maybe get some useage with Cable and or with Green Goblin to help fortify her specials.

    I initially read her power as reducing enemy AP every turn. But when I read it in game, I realised it sounds like it only does it when the countdown expires. So she could potentially work with one of my favourite pairs C4rol and  Switch. She would be replacing MeH as he was the third to go with them. This team works by having C4rol use her yellow on Switchs' countdown to generate pink AP and use to stun. Which also boosts friendly special tiles because a countdown expired. 

    Spending 5 yellow AP in order to get rid of AP in 4 enemy pools seems counterproductive. But when most powers cost 6-14AP to fire, it could end up working in your favour.
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,275 Chairperson of the Boards
    Sorry, not a fan of the artwork.
    As for Monica - there is quite a lot going on with her.  What happens to her Countdown tile if it gets removed by Kitty's Circuit Breaker? Does that count as enemy firing a power so Monica deals damage or does Monica lose the countdown and take the damage herself? If it is the latter she gets added to the list of characters who suicide to Kitty?
  • Sekilicious
    Sekilicious Posts: 1,766 Chairperson of the Boards
    I had a bit of difficulty navigating F4antastic, Monica, and Talos as I have never actually used any of these characters. Luckily Galactus seemed heavily nerfed for this fight. My initial thoughts are it seemed easier than expected to get her repeater to drop in a few turns. I hated firing her red and pink since I wanted the AP so had to force myself. Luckily the red killed off countdown tiles so that was a bonus. I never fired F4antastic's or Talo's powers and ended the match with about 30 in everything but Red and Pink. Monica would be a good partner for Beast and Chavez I think, though still a bit slow. 
  • Akoni
    Akoni Posts: 790 Critical Contributor
    Theghouse said:
    HoundofShadow said:
    Her powers looks puzzly. I can think of only  Wiccan and Juggernaut who can bring her repeater to the bottom immediately without fail, but both cost 11 to 12 ap. But it's not sustainable.

    Or we can use C4rol and steal up to 8ap from enemies. Yellow is easier to generate and her power costs 5.

    All in all, her powers seem all over the place: steal ap, increase enemy power cost, gain ap, destroy selected tiles. 

    5/5/3 or 4/5/4 dependings on the enemy type.
    Don't forget her CD gives a Peggy-esque cost penalty to other team powers.  Caroling it away is forfeiting half of its usefulness.

    She's a decent third for Chavez/Karnak in 4* land.  Her AP steal and acceleration helps keep Chavez AP advantage over enemy team, critical cascades can help her tile fall to the bottom quicker, and her power cost penalty can help keep an enemy from firing a power before you get Karnak's match boost and free crits out.
    I was thinking more like Chavez/Juggernaut/Ram which also happens to be a good counter to any team using Ram. I like Karnak, but the moment his three turns are up, he tanks almost everything requiring me to end it fast or risk putting him on bed rest to avoid using health packs. 

    Given my luck with cascades, her tile will probably be matched before it hits the bottom, but I can see it going off occasionally.
  • Akoni
    Akoni Posts: 790 Critical Contributor
    mdreyer93 said:
    DeNappa said:
    Not gonna lie, her art looks pretty bad...
    I wonder if this is the same artist as Elsa and Negasonic. Bring back the Morbius artist!
    It's very possible that they are using interns for some of the artwork. Many companies give young professionals opportunities like this. As my business grows, it's actually in the plan to contract young professionals or college students to do some of the lesser important things like this that I don't have a lot of time for. As consumers, we will get varying quality on unimportant stuff, but it's a great resume builder for them. She'll still see some play if her powers pan out.
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,275 Chairperson of the Boards

    Srheer0 said:
    Art isn't easy. So I forgive D3 for art complaints. None of us know about what work goes into creating the visuals OR if they are even allowed to use official artwork for characters in the game.  


    If it is an MCU tie-in, they normally base at least some of the artwork around actual moments from the film/TV Series. So here we see Monica with her blue eyes manifesting suggesting that she is getting her super powers.

    The comparable art work (which I couldn't seem to get posted here) looks like Monica is auditioning for a part in a re-make of Michael Jackson's Thriller.

  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,454 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited April 2021
    I’d be willing to bet the character artists are contractors, either individuals contracted directly or an art house where you get whoever is available.

    I don't want to pile on, but this character art isn't my favorite either. It has a vagueness about the features and an inexpertise about the posing that don't feel so much like a style choice as like a capability issue. It has a general Deviant Art OC-ishness about it that doesn't feel up to par with other characters in the game.

    Mechanically the AP steal doesn't look to be happening every turn, so i don't think I'll be using her a ton.
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    I like the animation for Supply Drone. The loaner for her is 5/3/5, which means her repeater is not fortified.

    I'm looking forward to trying her with America Chavez and Wiccan. I think there's some synergy in this team.
  • KGB
    KGB Posts: 3,236 Chairperson of the Boards
    I managed to get her repeater to the bottom quite easily. Then again Galactus doesn't move any tiles so it had little chance of being matched away. When it's fortified my guess is that it will make it to the bottom about half the time if your actively trying to make that happen (which means your not denying colors or prioritizing other matches of enemy CD's / special tiles).
    The sad part was all that AP was wasted due to none of the 3 characters having any useful powers to fire (other than her Red once you filled up on AP).  Really hope she gets 2 partners for every test match and that next time we get 2 partners who can use the AP for something useful.
    KGB
  • Akoni
    Akoni Posts: 790 Critical Contributor
    OK, fine. If no-one else is going to ask the question, then I will.

    Are we going to get a 5* Monica Rambeau as Spectrum at some point?
  • Tony_Foot
    Tony_Foot Posts: 1,812 Chairperson of the Boards
    LavaManLee said:
    As a 5* player, I don't see any use for her except for when required.
    I just don’t see the point of these anymore. Even in the four star tier these just don’t generate any interest anymore. The tier is so bloated I can’t remember what most of them do anymore. Yeah you get the odd Polaris but the rest are pointless even though they might be well designed. They should just can making four stars now and only release a five star once every 4 weeks. I doubt it would hurt revenue because who is chasing a beast, Monica, Morbious, even throg, never used since release.
  • Sekilicious
    Sekilicious Posts: 1,766 Chairperson of the Boards
    Tony_Foot said:
    LavaManLee said:
    As a 5* player, I don't see any use for her except for when required.
    I just don’t see the point of these anymore. Even in the four star tier these just don’t generate any interest anymore. The tier is so bloated I can’t remember what most of them do anymore. Yeah you get the odd Polaris but the rest are pointless even though they might be well designed. They should just can making four stars now and only release a five star once every 4 weeks. I doubt it would hurt revenue because who is chasing a beast, Monica, Morbious, even throg, never used since release.
    Time to start 6* characters and boost the SCLs to 12!
  • wymtime
    wymtime Posts: 3,759 Chairperson of the Boards
    While playing her the way I see using her is as an extra AP battery and to reduce the enemy’s ability to hit you.  This means after you get one repeater to the bottom of the board using her red to drop the next repeater as far down as possible to generate more AP.  

    Using her red and Maybe purple would make me look to Pairing her with Onslaught to help speed up the first repeater dropping and then Yellowjacket.  Once Yellowjacket goes invisible if you can make some cascades you can do some damage plus drop that repeater to generate more AP.  This combo might work well in some puzzle gauntlets to generate X number of AP.
  • Bad
    Bad Posts: 3,146 Chairperson of the Boards
    I would say it is the same art as colossus, their stance look pretty similar. But colossus has a nice outfit and she looks like a really normal girl.

    Really interesting powers, she is a huge TU cascade generator and critical tiles, if firing her red before any power. She can destroy a huge amount of tiles per 6 AP.

    Good news for cascade Bros, or colossus.
  • KGB
    KGB Posts: 3,236 Chairperson of the Boards
    Tony_Foot said:
    LavaManLee said:
    As a 5* player, I don't see any use for her except for when required.
    I just don’t see the point of these anymore. Even in the four star tier these just don’t generate any interest anymore. The tier is so bloated I can’t remember what most of them do anymore. Yeah you get the odd Polaris but the rest are pointless even though they might be well designed. They should just can making four stars now and only release a five star once every 4 weeks. I doubt it would hurt revenue because who is chasing a beast, Monica, Morbious, even throg, never used since release.
    New players are chasing them. As in new to the 4* tier. The reason is that they are heavily featured for several months (like the latest 5* are) so they can be easily fully covered by a player transitioning to the 4* tier.  As a late stage 4* player (all 4* champed) I routinely get new 4*s into the 290 range by the time they rotate out of the heavy rotation.
    On the other hand older 4* are almost as hard to cover as older 5* are due to dilution being that much worse.
    At some point Demi is going to have to address the idea of permanently retiring older characters like they did with 1* Yelena Belova. They'd offer an LT buyback for a retiring 5* like they did with Gambits nerf and from that point forward the character would no longer be available in tokens at all. Pretty much every 5* prior to Thor could be retired and they could stagger it out at a decent pace of say 1 retirement every couple of months.
    KGB
  • SuperRecoome
    SuperRecoome Posts: 59 Match Maker
    KGB said:
    Tony_Foot said:
    LavaManLee said:
    As a 5* player, I don't see any use for her except for when required.
    I just don’t see the point of these anymore. Even in the four star tier these just don’t generate any interest anymore. The tier is so bloated I can’t remember what most of them do anymore. Yeah you get the odd Polaris but the rest are pointless even though they might be well designed. They should just can making four stars now and only release a five star once every 4 weeks. I doubt it would hurt revenue because who is chasing a beast, Monica, Morbious, even throg, never used since release.
    New players are chasing them. As in new to the 4* tier. The reason is that they are heavily featured for several months (like the latest 5* are) so they can be easily fully covered by a player transitioning to the 4* tier.  As a late stage 4* player (all 4* champed) I routinely get new 4*s into the 290 range by the time they rotate out of the heavy rotation.
    On the other hand older 4* are almost as hard to cover as older 5* are due to dilution being that much worse.
    At some point Demi is going to have to address the idea of permanently retiring older characters like they did with 1* Yelena Belova. They'd offer an LT buyback for a retiring 5* like they did with Gambits nerf and from that point forward the character would no longer be available in tokens at all. Pretty much every 5* prior to Thor could be retired and they could stagger it out at a decent pace of say 1 retirement every couple of months.
    KGB
    They tried retiring characters once and that is not the answer. There has to be a way to continue to get the older characters. The easiest solution would be to make latest tokens actually only contain the latest characters,  4* included,  classic tokens could have all the rest. Though for some reason the devs don't want to do that. I don't remember if they ever explained why. 
  • KGB
    KGB Posts: 3,236 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited April 2021
    SuperRecoome said:
    KGB said:

    New players are chasing them. As in new to the 4* tier. The reason is that they are heavily featured for several months (like the latest 5* are) so they can be easily fully covered by a player transitioning to the 4* tier.  As a late stage 4* player (all 4* champed) I routinely get new 4*s into the 290 range by the time they rotate out of the heavy rotation.
    On the other hand older 4* are almost as hard to cover as older 5* are due to dilution being that much worse.
    At some point Demi is going to have to address the idea of permanently retiring older characters like they did with 1* Yelena Belova. They'd offer an LT buyback for a retiring 5* like they did with Gambits nerf and from that point forward the character would no longer be available in tokens at all. Pretty much every 5* prior to Thor could be retired and they could stagger it out at a decent pace of say 1 retirement every couple of months.
    KGB
    They tried retiring characters once and that is not the answer. There has to be a way to continue to get the older characters. The easiest solution would be to make latest tokens actually only contain the latest characters,  4* included,  classic tokens could have all the rest. Though for some reason the devs don't want to do that. I don't remember if they ever explained why. 
    Why do we need continual access to 5+ year old characters? I can't recall the last time I've seen Surfer / Phoenix etc used anywhere in PvP (besides Class of 2015 they run 1x a year). They get used once every year in PvE, if that often when they are essential. No one runs them anymore at all because they are hopelessly outdated so they just clog up roster slots and dilute Classic Legend tokens and annoyingly appear in 5* limited stores for new 5* releases.
    Players hated that latest LT tokens only contained latest 4* because they wanted access to champ rewards for older 4* when they opened a hoard of LT's (hardly anyone opens classics). So you'll never get LT's just giving latest 4*.
    KGB
  • MrDupaTM
    MrDupaTM Posts: 67 Match Maker
    Time to start 6* characters and boost the SCLs to 12!
    I genuinely think the best way to improve the game would be to create a 4,5* level between 4 and 5 (since the gap between 4* and 5* is way bigger than between 3* and 4*).

    But I agree there too many 4* already.
  • MoosePrime
    MoosePrime Posts: 969 Critical Contributor
    Now that she's available, is she a feeder for anyone?
  • Akoni
    Akoni Posts: 790 Critical Contributor
    MrDupaTM said:
    Time to start 6* characters and boost the SCLs to 12!
    I genuinely think the best way to improve the game would be to create a 4,5* level between 4 and 5 (since the gap between 4* and 5* is way bigger than between 3* and 4*).

    But I agree there too many 4* already.
    The jump in stats from 4* to 5* was done on purpose. Yes, there is a big gap, but that gap serves as the incentive to make the jump from one tier to the next. Without that jump, no-one would make the jump from 2* to 3*, 3* to 4*, and 4* to 5*. As a 3* player I would not have made the jump to 4* if my 3s could hang with the 4s. Now, while in the 4s, I wouldn't even bother with 5s if my 4s could hang with them. 

    I won't go into all the reasons why 6* characters make sense. I already shared my opinions about it. Feel free to read it here: https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/83124/6-star-cosmic#latest 

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